


Live to Fight Another Day

by ferociousqueak



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Refuse Ending, Shakarian if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-09 21:56:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4365602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferociousqueak/pseuds/ferociousqueak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She can’t make the choice. She’s Commander Shepard. She won’t let fear compromise who she is. There’s always another way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Live to Fight Another Day

She can’t make the choice. If she controls the Reapers, there’s no guarantee they won’t kill everyone eventually anyway. If she synthesizes all organic and artificial life, she will have committed the greatest atrocity against sentient life the galaxy has ever known. If she destroys the Reapers, she will usher in the genocide of the geth and EDI.

_EDI. The geth._

No. She can’t make that choice. She’s Commander Shepard. She won’t let fear compromise who she is. There’s always another way.

So she lies. She tells Hackett the Crucible doesn’t work. She calls the Normandy for a pickup. She falls into Med Bay just as she loses consciousness, just as what’s left of the galactic fleet retreats from Earth. Dr. Chakwas is still the best and brings her back from the brink again.

She lives to fight another day.

She’s fighting the day Jack and her students are swarmed on Earth, and Alliance ground forces lose their support.

She’s fighting the day Miranda lets her guard down, believing Cerberus destroyed, and loyal holdouts catch up to her.

She’s fighting the day Samara is overwhelmed by Banshees while buying time for the last remaining justicars on Thessia.

She’s fighting the day Grunt finally runs out of ammo.

She’s fighting the day another shuttle goes down, and everyone finds out exactly where Garrus is in the line of succession.

She’s fighting the day a new Heretic code infiltrates the geth.

She’s fighting the day the Heretics in Tali’s suit corrupt her and every quarian in a single assault.

She’s fighting the day Wrex thinks maybe he should’ve hired a food taster.

She’s fighting the day she becomes the last human Spectre.

She’s fighting the day Liara doesn’t come back from planting one of her “seeds.”

She’s fighting the day a new Shadow Broker slips quietly into place and starts feeding information to the Reapers.

She’s fighting the day an indoctrinated advisor leads Primarch Vakarian and his cabinet into an ambush.

(She does not fight for many days after that, but she’s Commander Shepard. She always comes back to the fight, empty galaxy or not.)

She’s fighting the day Joker goes down with the ship.

She’s fighting the day EDI’s last remaining platform becomes nonfunctional.

She’s fighting the day there’s no one left to follow her into hell, and there’s no way back.

She’s fighting the day the last fucking marauder takes down her shields for the last time, and as she looks into its singularly blue eyes, she wonders.

_Has she done everything she could? Is she finally free?_


End file.
